Netia K2 – Winter Expedition 2002/2003

On March18th,2003 the Netia K2 – Polish Winter Expedition to the second-highest mountain in the world – the K2 (8.611 m.a.s.l.) - was finished. The leader of the expedition was Krzysztof Wielicki, a world-famous climber, the fifth person in the world who climbed all of the 14 highest mountains on earth. Three of them (including Mount Everest) he climbed alone and on new routes.

The winter conquest of K2, a mountain regarded by many as the greatest challenge of modern climbing, took place in December 2002 – the year proclaimed by the UN as the “International year of the mountains”. K2 is considered as the ultimate climb. It is located in Karakoram range, at the border between China and Pakistan. The history of its exploration is long and dramatic. Until today less than 200 people reached the summit, but none of them in wintertime.

The team of Netia K2 Winter Expedition was climbing the mountain from the northern side. Krzysztof Wielicki has already successfully ascended the mountain in the summer of 1996.

Unfortunately, the expedition found its dramatic ending at the height of 7700 m. After the first unsuccessful attempt to ascend the mountain from the camp at 7640 m, Krzysztof Wielicki and Denis Urubko decided not to make a second attempt as the life of their team colleague Marcin Kaczkan was in danger.

Despite not reaching the peak, the Polish Winter Expedition set a new record – nobody made it so far in the winter. Krzysztof Wielicki still sticks to his idea of ascending K2 in the winter and plans to make one more attempt in the nearest future.   

LYOFOOD was the official partner of the Netia-K2 Polish Winter Expedition. During the exhausting stay in the Himalaya, the climbers were eating freeze-dried ready meals prepared by LYOFOOD.